by Plato.  He hopes that in his state will be found neither poverty nor riches; every man having the necessaries of life, he need not go fortune-hunting in marriage.  Almost in the spirit of the Gospel he would say, ’How hardly can a rich man dwell in a perfect state.’  For he cannot be a good man who is always gaining too much and spending too little (Laws; compare Arist.  Eth.  Nic.).  Plato, though he admits wealth as a political element, would deny that material prosperity can be the foundation of a really great community.  A man’s soul, as he often says, is more to be esteemed than his body; and his body than external goods.  He repeats the complaint which has been made in all ages, that the love of money is the corruption of states.  He has a sympathy with thieves and burglars, ’many of whom are men of ability and greatly to be pitied, because their souls are hungering and thirsting all their lives long;’ but he has little sympathy with shopkeepers or retailers, although he makes the reflection, which sometimes occurs to ourselves, that such occupations, if they were carried on honestly by the best men and women, would be delightful and honourable.  For traders and artisans a moderate gain was, in his opinion, best.  He has never, like modern writers, idealized the wealth of nations, any more than he has worked out the problems of political economy, which among the ancients had not yet grown into a science.  The isolation of Greek states, their constant wars, the want of a free industrial population, and of the modern methods and instruments of ‘credit,’ prevented any great extension of commerce among them; and so hindered them from forming a theory of the laws which regulate the accumulation and distribution of wealth.

The constitution of the army is aristocratic and also democratic; official appointment is combined with popular election.  The two principles are carried out as follows:  The guardians of the law nominate generals out of whom three are chosen by those who are or have been of the age for military service; and the generals elected have the nomination of certain of the inferior officers.  But if either in the case of generals or of the inferior officers any one is ready to swear that he knows of a better man than those nominated, he may put the claims of his candidate to the vote of the whole army, or of the division of the service which he will, if elected, command.  There is a general assembly, but its functions, except at elections, are hardly noticed.  In the election of the Boule, Plato again attempts to mix aristocracy and democracy.  This is effected, first as in the Servian constitution, by balancing wealth and numbers; for it cannot be supposed that those who possessed a higher qualification were equal in number with those who had a lower, and yet they have an equal number of representatives.  In the second place, all classes are compelled to vote in the election of senators from the first and second class; but the fourth class is not compelled to elect from the third, nor the third and fourth from the fourth.  Thirdly, out of the 180 persons who are thus chosen from each of the four classes, 720 in all, 360 are to be taken by lot; these form the council for the year.